To be honest, I have mixed feelings about this one. So far I've played it 10 hours, so I'm well into the story now. At this point it's a fun experience (for me), there are annoying or confusing stuff, like the magic parkour and the evading mechanism, sometimes I successfully dodge, sometimes it doesn't register it and I get hit anyway.
BUT overall I'm having fun with the game so far, the combat is nothing extraordinary, although this is a magic combat game which would mean that you are heavily using magic with, I assume, a wide variety of magic to use. 10 hours into the game I'm only using basically 3 magic that are really doing something to the enemies and the "ultimate" one. There are more to use but those aren't really useful or I just forget that those are existing when there are 5+ enemies around me. Of course this opinion is based on my playstyle and I might start using those later. The magic tree is impressively lacking I gotta say. I was waiting for a huge skilltree given that the game is an rpg type focusing on magic. There isn't too much in it though. So the combat I assume would be boring after a while for most people.
The graphics are nice, I wouldn't exactly say that it's next gen, but it looks nice overall. Although the specs needed for the game is a bit much in my opinion. I have an RX 5700 XT overclocked, and on normal graphics (the game says standard for some reason), not one option is turned up to ultra, not even high, and the game is squeezing my card really hard. I average on 60fps but it's maxing out my graphics card, again, it doesn't have extraordinary graphics. Hopefully it gets more optimized.
What I really don't like is that the game is constantly taking away the control from me. For the smallest, most insignificant interaction triggers a "loading screen", meaning the screen turns black then turn back on with whatever you are interacting with FOR THE INTERACTION, let it be NPC, an object that would trigger a side quest. Everything has this loading screen, and when you expect the game to give the control back, it seems like the game is reaaaaly thinking about it before you finally can move. Even when you are talking to your "cuff" which is on your arm I might say, you have to stand still and only listen to the interaction. It is annoying!
The world is beautiful, nice landscapes, nice scenery. But it's not an immensely huge map, or an immensely dense one like Red dead redemption. There are stuff to do of course, there are enemies wandering around, there are stuff to collect, but it feels dead. Which might be intentional, since according to the story, the Break basically corrupted the land and killed everything else so I guess I wouldn't chalk it up to a negative.
(NO SPOILERS) The story so far is... well interesting enough for me to not get bored of it too soon, but it certainly isn't Last of Us tier. I'm a die hard fantasy fan so I drink up anything even close to it, so that is definitely adding to my enjoyment. But I can easily imagine that most people will throw shade on it since it's nothing objectively interesting. You get teleported into a fantasy land, there's four bad people that you eventually have to defeat and you'll be the hero of the day. At least from what I have experienced from the story in this 10 hours.
Which also ties into the next point. The protagonist in this 10 hours, for me at least, wasn't really likeable. She is a bit on the negative side on the spectrum when it comes to how she feels about being in that world. Though that is obviously coming from the fact that she was teleported there from modern New York, and the way she lived her life there. BUT what I really don't like about her is how she interacts with Cuff. She is constantly being salty with him, and says nothing to him that would even be considered nice. Yeah, some people would say that it is also coming from the way she lived her life, but Cuff is literally on her arm so they are stuck together 24/7 so hearing her shut him up constantly, or being just plain rude to him when he says something random, or when she acts like a salty, don't care about anything teenager in cutscenes when Cuff says something important, or knowledgable to her, it gets a bit annoying or tiring. Like for God's sakes, you are stuck together, be at least somewhat friendly once in a while.
Overall I'm not at a point where I'd stop playing it, haven't finished it yet so there might be some improvements on the story and how the two main character interacts. I'm only giving it a thumbs up because I haven't had any bad experience so far that would make me stop playing. BUT it's an average game at best. Consider that when buying.
Update: I was wrong about the lack of magic to use in the game. Funny enough, right after I wrote this review, I got to a point where I unlocked a whole new magic skill tree based on a boss you beat, so now I'm curious if we get the other main boss's magic as well.
It's still fun for me to play this, the map got way bigger as well, there are way more stuff to do. So in the future it might be better if I just play through the whole game before I submit a review about it. I thought the 10 hours would be enough to form an opinion on it as it's usually enough time to get the main mechanics of the game (usually it's enough for me at least), but I was wrong. A surprise to be sure but a welcome one.
BUT overall I'm having fun with the game so far, the combat is nothing extraordinary, although this is a magic combat game which would mean that you are heavily using magic with, I assume, a wide variety of magic to use. 10 hours into the game I'm only using basically 3 magic that are really doing something to the enemies and the "ultimate" one. There are more to use but those aren't really useful or I just forget that those are existing when there are 5+ enemies around me. Of course this opinion is based on my playstyle and I might start using those later. The magic tree is impressively lacking I gotta say. I was waiting for a huge skilltree given that the game is an rpg type focusing on magic. There isn't too much in it though. So the combat I assume would be boring after a while for most people.
The graphics are nice, I wouldn't exactly say that it's next gen, but it looks nice overall. Although the specs needed for the game is a bit much in my opinion. I have an RX 5700 XT overclocked, and on normal graphics (the game says standard for some reason), not one option is turned up to ultra, not even high, and the game is squeezing my card really hard. I average on 60fps but it's maxing out my graphics card, again, it doesn't have extraordinary graphics. Hopefully it gets more optimized.
What I really don't like is that the game is constantly taking away the control from me. For the smallest, most insignificant interaction triggers a "loading screen", meaning the screen turns black then turn back on with whatever you are interacting with FOR THE INTERACTION, let it be NPC, an object that would trigger a side quest. Everything has this loading screen, and when you expect the game to give the control back, it seems like the game is reaaaaly thinking about it before you finally can move. Even when you are talking to your "cuff" which is on your arm I might say, you have to stand still and only listen to the interaction. It is annoying!
The world is beautiful, nice landscapes, nice scenery. But it's not an immensely huge map, or an immensely dense one like Red dead redemption. There are stuff to do of course, there are enemies wandering around, there are stuff to collect, but it feels dead. Which might be intentional, since according to the story, the Break basically corrupted the land and killed everything else so I guess I wouldn't chalk it up to a negative.
(NO SPOILERS) The story so far is... well interesting enough for me to not get bored of it too soon, but it certainly isn't Last of Us tier. I'm a die hard fantasy fan so I drink up anything even close to it, so that is definitely adding to my enjoyment. But I can easily imagine that most people will throw shade on it since it's nothing objectively interesting. You get teleported into a fantasy land, there's four bad people that you eventually have to defeat and you'll be the hero of the day. At least from what I have experienced from the story in this 10 hours.
Which also ties into the next point. The protagonist in this 10 hours, for me at least, wasn't really likeable. She is a bit on the negative side on the spectrum when it comes to how she feels about being in that world. Though that is obviously coming from the fact that she was teleported there from modern New York, and the way she lived her life there. BUT what I really don't like about her is how she interacts with Cuff. She is constantly being salty with him, and says nothing to him that would even be considered nice. Yeah, some people would say that it is also coming from the way she lived her life, but Cuff is literally on her arm so they are stuck together 24/7 so hearing her shut him up constantly, or being just plain rude to him when he says something random, or when she acts like a salty, don't care about anything teenager in cutscenes when Cuff says something important, or knowledgable to her, it gets a bit annoying or tiring. Like for God's sakes, you are stuck together, be at least somewhat friendly once in a while.
Overall I'm not at a point where I'd stop playing it, haven't finished it yet so there might be some improvements on the story and how the two main character interacts. I'm only giving it a thumbs up because I haven't had any bad experience so far that would make me stop playing. BUT it's an average game at best. Consider that when buying.
Update: I was wrong about the lack of magic to use in the game. Funny enough, right after I wrote this review, I got to a point where I unlocked a whole new magic skill tree based on a boss you beat, so now I'm curious if we get the other main boss's magic as well.
It's still fun for me to play this, the map got way bigger as well, there are way more stuff to do. So in the future it might be better if I just play through the whole game before I submit a review about it. I thought the 10 hours would be enough to form an opinion on it as it's usually enough time to get the main mechanics of the game (usually it's enough for me at least), but I was wrong. A surprise to be sure but a welcome one.
